Titans rise only to be taken down by underdogs, as proven Friday at OGN's Overwatch APEX in Seoul, South Korea. While CONBOX kept Meta Bellum at the bottom of the standings, MVP Space took back-to-back champions Lunatic-Hai all the way to a fifth game in the set, and then smashed LH into the pavement.
CONBOX vs. Meta Bellum
Map 1: Oasis (Control)
Map 2: King's Row (Assault/Escort)
Map 3: Hanamura (Assault)
Map 4: Route 66 (Escort)
If this were last season, CONBOX should have been able to defeat Meta Bellum in an 3-0 sweep, but since Noh "Gamsu" Yeong-Jin left the team, it is notably a weaker without his presence.
CONBOX stomped MB on Oasis, only to be exposed for how weak its roster is now without Gamsu on it. Many players were lost or uncoordinated, and only Choi "Asher" Joon-seong and Park "Architect" Min-ho remained as the best of CONBOX. Despite the efforts of Asher and Architect, CONBOX couldn't push the payload as efficiently as Meta Bellum did.
For a team with a quick ticket out of APEX, it did its homework by using a Pharah on King's Row against a Tracer and Doomfist, remaining untouched and in control of the skies. MB winning King's Row was a boon for it, but for the rest of the set, Asher's Tracer gave zero breathing room on Hanamura and Route 66, securing the 3-1 win for his team.
MVP Space vs. Lunatic-Hai
Map 1: Nepal (Control)
Map 2: Eichenwald (Assault/Escort)
Map 3: Temple of Anubis (Assault)
Tiebreaker: Ilios (Control)
Map 4: Watchpoint: Gibraltar (Escort)
Map 5: Hollywood (Assault/Escort)
This is by far the most exciting match thus far in APEX Season 4, as MVP Space took Lunatic-Hai all the way to the end of a best-of-five. Initially, it didn't look like a difficult match-up with Lunatic-Hai taking an easy win off of MVP Space on Nepal, but things changed quickly on Eichenwald.
MVP pulled out a Doomfist and Pharmercy (Pharah and Mercy), in which Lunatic-Hai had no answer to, allowing MVP to full hold the first point, bringing the series to 1-1. The most important thing to note was Kim "OneFact" Jin-heung bulldozing the players on Lunatic-Hai with his Doomfist. Not just on Eichenwald, but the entire series. If there is only 'OneFact' about this series, it's that his Doomfist was the clear MVP of the day.
Temple of Anubis brought misfortune to LH as Gong "Miro" Jin-hyuk played his famous Winston, only to knock the enemy Reaper into his own team while Death Blossom was in play. This brought both squads into a tiebreaker match on Ilios, which MVP Space gladly took hold of. With match point in favor of MVP Space, Lunatic-Hai fought tooth and nail to take Watchpoint: Gibraltar.
By now it was clear what Lunatic-Hai's issues were. Along with poor synergy within the team, Lee "LEETAEJUN" was a significantly weaker Tracer in comparison to the top Tracers in APEX. LH also seemed to be unable to adapt to the Mercy Resurrect, along with being unable to play Doomfist themselves at this point in the tournament. The final map, Hollywood would be LH's undoing as OneFact's Doomfost terrorized the reigning champions once again, securing a 3-2 upset.
While Lunatic-Hai was playing below its threshold, MVP Space deserves every bit of recognition for playing incredible against the current APEX Champions.